Their stay in Nairobi was brief and soon they were again on the train, on the newly opened line to Eldoret passing through the highest station in the British Empire, appropriately named Summit, some 2,785 metres above sea level!

Eldoret, corruptly named after Eldorado following a small gold find, was also known as "Plot 64". When the Government surveyors pegged out blocks of land for which settlers could apply, each future farm received a number. Number 64 on the Sosiani River was found unsuitable for farming, so it was selected as the site of a Post Office, opened in 1910. After the Boer War, many Boers trekked overland from South Africa looking for new pastoral ground. They settled in the Eldoret and Kitale area. This area of Kenya was considered highly suitable for farming and a number of English settlers, from well connected English backgrounds or retired army officers, also settled in the area. The farming community kept themselves to themselves. The Boers used their church for their social activities and were a very close knit community whilst the British settlers established their own Social Club.

Frank's posting to Eldoret was to last two and a half years. Eldoret was a now small administrative centre and the only shops were Indian dukas (shops), a European butcher and a European trading store for the farmers. The Standard Bank was already established and Bertie Eastwood was the Accountant. He, and later his wife, Gladys, were to become great friends of Frank and Winnie.

Frank had a BSA motor cycle on which to get around. It had a small rack on the back and Winnie would sit on a cushion, side saddle. All roads in the area were murram - the ubiquitous murram - and very corrugated. Winnie would often go out with Frank and one evening when out for a ride and, going around a corner, she fell off, fortunately not hurting herself. Frank did not realise she wasn't with him until he reached his destination!

In his later years, Frank loved to embroider his stories, and this was no exception. His revised version was that when he reached his destination, his host asked where Winnie was. Frank, realising that she must have fallen off the pillion, responded "Thank goodness she's not there. I thought I had gone deaf!"

There was a shortage of Government housing in Eldoret and houses were leased from the private sector. Frank and Winnie lived in five different houses in two and a half years. Fortunately, the houses became progressively better. "We lived in two Provincial Commissioner's houses with tennis courts after the first dreadful one" recalled Winnie.

The owner of the first house, on the outskirts of the township, ran out of money before he had put glass in the windows. The windows were covered with mosquito netting and expanded metal ("to keep out the natives"). The doors were any old doors. "They had no keys and they had all warped so would not close." There being no fences, "wild animals" prowled around the house at night.

Through the Public Works Department, basic furniture was supplied to all Government Officials. The rooms in this first house were large and the issued furniture did little to make the house homely. The lounge furniture, consisting of Morris-style sofa and two chairs, covered in Khaki coloured cotton made little impression in the room, but the black elephant table they had bought in Port Said, was given place of honour in the centre. The bedroom was furnished with a double bed which collapsed when anyone sat on the end! There was no piped water, sewerage system or electricity. "We had a tin bath, plus a rusty iron stand for a badly chipped enamel basin and a commode without its bucket".

Servants' quarters, consisting of at least three single rooms and ablution facilities, were built some distance from the house. It was usual to have a cook, a house-boy and a toto (a boy in his early 'teens) to do the dirty jobs, such as cleaning pots and pans, polishing shoes and other jobs the cook and house-boy delegated to him. A gardener (shamba boy) was also employed to cut the grass, sweep the drive and tend to plants and animals (the family dogs and domestic fowls). Their pay, compared to today's standards, was a mere pittance and they received a monthly ration of staple food, consisting of posho (a coarsely ground maize flour), sugar and tea.

Water was carried up to the house from a nearby river. As there had been no rain for over three months, the river was low and the water brought to the house was dirty and muddy. A ten gallon tank, turned on its side and placed on stilts, with space underneath for a fire, was the hot water system. It had to be filled by bucket. "We did manage to get the Public Works Department to put in two tanks to catch the water running off the roof. In the meantime they had acquired two puppies. In time the rains came and joy, we got a little water in the tanks. One day the puppies pulled out the wooden makeshift plugs - result, no water again". Water for drinking, had to be boiled and then filtered through an stoneware filter.

It was rare for houses to have internal toilets and the family did not experience such permanent luxury until they returned to England in 1946! The toilets, one for the household and one for the servants, were some distance from the house and were either a deep pit covered with a wooden box or it had a removable bucket which was emptied every night by the "sanitary sweeper". As there was no sewerage system, water from the bath and kitchen was channelled onto the garden to irrigate the plants.

Kitchens were also some distance from the house, as they were regarded as a fire hazard, with no running water and a wood stove. The window had wooden shutters rather than glass and with the wood fuelled stove for cooking, the kitchen soon became a hot, black hole from the smoke. The kitchen toto cleaned the pots and pans with the wood ash and he could get quite a good sheen on them.

Groceries came from the Indian duka and Winnie soon developed the local habit of sending one of the servants to do the shopping with the bill being paid monthly. Only tinned milk was available, because the hot dry climate meant that dairy farming was impossible. Winnie was only aware of one type of tinned milk: condensed - thick and sweet. It was sometime before she discovered Ideal Milk and this was thanks to a welcoming tea party, given by one of Frank's colleagues.

As part of his duties, Frank visited the local market daily, so he did the shopping for fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and fish. One day he brought home an ox tail, a delicacy of which he was particularly fond. Under instructions from Winnie, the cook wound the tail round the inside of the largest pan and added a few vegetables. It was to be a treat for that night's dinner. It was served, laid out on the largest serving dish of the dinner service bought in Gamages with the vegetables on either side, in regimental order! Frank gave one look at the dish and his face fell. "What the hell is this?" he exclaimed. Neither Winnie or the cook had realised that the tail should have been cut into segments and that, because of the high altitude, food required a longer time to cook. The cook remained silent, after all, the memsahib knew best!

Her stay in Eldoret was a period of extreme loneliness for Winnie. Being of a shy nature, she did not make friends easily. She was also very home sick and longed to see her family. Mail to and from England travelled by sea and there was at least six weeks between letters.

To pass the time she sewed. Her first task was to make curtains and having no sewing machine, made them by hand. She also did a great deal of embroidery and crochet work and soon her house was becoming a home, with the added comfort of cushions and curtains.

By early 1930, Winnie was pregnant and they planned a holiday in Nairobi. They stayed with friends and whilst there, Frank bought a car, a green and cream Austin Seven. They drove back to Eldoret, breaking their journey at Nakuru. The road from Nairobi to Eldoret was corrugated and dusty in the dry weather, turning to a sea of mud in the wet. When they returned home, Frank discovered he had won a motor cycle and side car in a raffle! He had taken two or three books in the raffle to sell, forgot about them and had bought all the tickets himself! He sold the prize.

Their daughter was born on 16th August 1930. When Frank went to the District Commissioner's Office to register the birth, the DC, whom Frank knew quite well, asked "What are you calling your daughter?" "Marjorie," replied Frank. "But you can't have just one name, Frank. It is customary to have two names." (In the North of England it was then customary to have one Christian name only and both Frank and Winnie's families had followed this practice.) "We haven't got another name for her. I will have to come back." However, after much discussion with the DC, and without further consultation with Winnie, Frank registered his daughter as Marjorie Patricia, tactfully selecting the name of the DC's daughter, Patricia.

Frank and Winnie left Eldoret in early 1931 and, travelling with their young baby, sailed to England for about six months leave. Whilst there, they again visited Gamages to renew some of their linen, china and glass ware and they also bought an ice cream churner.